Daily Delight

It seems like it’s that time of year again, when tears can flow at any second as we send our kids off to the first day of preschool or the first day of their sophomore year in college. UGH! There are tears that a mamma sheds that no one quite understands. But girl, don’t we know – a good cry once in a while soothes the soul! At times I find myself holding them back and stuffing them inside. It feels like tears come straight from the heart and are tied to the soul; like no matter how hard we try to control them with our mind they have a power all their own. And even greater are the tears of grief and tragedy. But wait for it!King David wrote, “You keep track of all my sorrows. You have collected all my tears in your bottle. You have recorded each one in your book” (Psalms 56:8, NLT). He wrote this at the time he was being seized by the Philistines. His tears were maybe a mixture of fear and sorrow. This really made me stop and think how much God values our tears. He bottles them up and keeps inventory of them! I don’t know how many times I’ve heard the expression “I wish I could bottle up that energy”, but God bottles up our tears. He keeps track of each one. Only things of value ever get bottled, and if God is bottling them up they must have an eternal value that we can’t begin to understand. God does not want us to hold them back. So, let them roll. He sees them. He collects them.Here’s a very cool fact: when we cry from an emotion, the tears have a chemical compound that is a natural pain killer. Yeah, He thought of that too. He knew just how He could soothe us when our soul is in pain. I’m not quite sure where He keeps this bottle, or how big it is, but even Jesus has tears in the bottle along with yours and mine. I believe His tear collection is precious to Him, because You are precious to Him. Someday, He’ll wipe tears out of existence. We won’t need them anymore. We’ll have HIM.

About the Author

Theresa Fenton

Currently living in Southern IL, Theresa was raised in the beautiful Berkshires of Massachusetts, and met her husband Kyle 24 years ago. They have two grown children – Abigail & Michael – both away at college and living their dreams. It’s been said that Theresa likes to “make all things pretty,” and that includes the words she puts on paper and her blog.

Theresa loves spending her time fixing up and decorating homes, cooking, meeting new friends, influencing the world around her with hope and faith and ultimately – to love God and love people a whole bunch!

You can find Theresa on Instagram here and her blog here.